Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, I will let it go. I mean, talk about dumb animals.

The Prime Minister does not shoot straight. His own side knows that. They know the vainglorious manner of this Prime Minister. When he first ran for leader of their party, Mr Rudd got one vote and that was his own. Of course, circumstances, fortune and fate came together and he is now Prime Minister. Yes, Senator Sterle, you may be connected to the man but there are a lot of people on your side, particularly in the ministry, who are not connected to this centralist Prime Minister who, after 12 months, holds all power and decisions within his own department. That is no way to run a government. He fails on that score. That is the report card to date. But before I get on to the economic report card, I should add that the Australian people are waking up to the all talk, no substance, no action spin. You will get a committee, you will get a green paper, you will get a white paper and you will get a draft. You will get an interim report and a final report. There are discussion papers, scoping studies and summits out there. What happened to the 2020 summit? What a farce that was. They will always set up an inquiry for you and commissions with commissioners, bodies to oversee and bodies to advise, but there will never be much action on the ground.

The Prime Minister is always declaring war, either on drugs—it is all big talk on drugs—on cancer, on inflation, on unemployment or on global unemployment. He has declared war on whalers—whatever came of that? Nothing. Aboriginal disadvantage—